Before going to Paris, a bulk of our time in class was spent learning about a few designers whose contributions have cemented them within the French fashion world and the overall industry. One of them was Yves Saint Laurent whose museum we were able to visit on our last day there. Many people know Yves for his smoking suit, his Piet Mondrian inspired dresses, or his safari jacket, but not many are aware of how much African culture influenced his pieces.

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Yves grew up in Algeria which is likely where his penchant for it stemmed. Over the course of his life, he continually sought out the comfort of Africa often retiring to his home in Morocco to design his collections. These trips inspired him to start incorporating color into his designs and introduced him to the idea of using black models for his shows. Yves became one of the first major designers to include black models in his shows and has commented on his admiration of the aesthetic and energy of black and African models several times. These trips also led to him using the shape of traditional Moroccan garments like the djellaba and the burnoose within one of his collections.

Another one of his most overt expression of this came in the form of his Spring-Summer 1967 collection and the following year’s collection as well. In the 1967 collection, Yves debuted several gowns that were extremely reminiscent of what the women in Mali’s Bambara community wear. To construct these dresses he used many natural materials such as straw, tassels, raffia, and wooden beads to really mirror the style. Accompanying them were bangles and headdresses that similarly drew inspiration from various African communities. On the runway that year he utilized white models to showcase the designs, further complicating the idea that he simply appreciated the Bambara’s clothing and wanted to pay homage to them.

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His inspiration didn’t cease after this collection as in his 1968 Spring-Summer collection he debuted one of his most iconic pieces, the safari jacket. The jacket was actually inspired by uniforms of German military forces in Africa called the Afrika Korps, and even though it’s not directly a part of African culture it still displays how elements of and events in Africa captured him. When we visited the YSL Museum, his ‘67 collection wasn’t on exhibit but the safari jacket was (I later found out many of his most African inspired pieces are housed in the YSL Museum in Marrakech). It wasn’t until after we returned to the US that I began really thinking about the manner in which these collections are talked about in the fashion world and whether or not Yves should’ve designed these pieces at all.

Our course deals with cultural identity and expression through fashion, and making those pieces as a person not even remotely associated with those communities definitely prompts the question of appropriation, and where the line between that and appreciation is drawn. We even talked about this with Jacqueline, our Barbés tour guide and I’ve resigned that it’s a complex topic with many layers. Personally, I don’t feel Yves should’ve materialized any of the designs besides the safari jacket (and even with that I’m conflicted given the context of the Afrika Korps), because I don’t enjoy the fact that he profited off commodifying someone’s culture, especially considering he never traveled to Mali. His incorporation of bright colors and use of black and African models are perfectly fine, but everything else was completely inappropriate. However, this doesn’t necessarily detract from his artistry and his impact. In fact Dyenaa, the owner of Peulh Vagabond, stated that he was one of her favorite designers and countless black and African models have credited him with jump-starting their careers. Ultimately, I think admiration and critique aren’t mutually exclusive and by acknowledging that even those we look up to make mistakes, we become more well-rounded people.

Sources:

“Discovering Morocco.” Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, https://museeyslparis.com/en/biography/decouverte-du-maroc. Accessed 7 May 2019.

“First Safari Jacket.” Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, https://museeyslparis.com/en/biography/premiere-saharienne-pe. Accessed 7 May 2019.

“The Spring-Summer African Collection.” Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, https://museeyslparis.com/en/biography/collection-africaine-pe. Accessed 7 May 2019.

“Yves Saint Laurent et Le Maroc.” Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, https://museeyslparis.com/en/international-exhibitions/yves-saint-laurent-et-le-maroc. Accessed 7 May 2019.